It’s a wonder any work gets done at all at GameSpy Industries Inc.
The company’s Irvine headquarters buzzes with the electronic blips of arcade games and the clatter of stray ping-pong balls falling from the second floor.
Bouncing into the main lobby, a few of the balls roll toward the 8-foot-tall monument to “Quake”, the computer game that company founder Mark Surfas says inspired it all.
But GameSpy is serious business for the 35-year-old California native who has turned his love of “Quake” and other Internet diversions into an 85-person company. Surfas, GameSpy’s chief executive, hopes to quadruple revenue to $8 million this year.
With an overhaul of his company’s online gaming software and a spate of licensing deals, Surfas hopes to cater not only to Internet game fans, but also to game developers looking for new ways to distribute their titles online.
The privately held company is known among game players for its GameSpy 3D software, which makes it easy for hard-core game fans to find other players for online matches. Now GameSpy’s testing a similar program aimed at a broader audience of casual users called GameSpy Arcade.
GameSpy, which also offers game industry news, reviews and other online features, has become one of the best-known gaming sites, attracting investments from computer magazine and Web site publisher Ziff-Davis Inc., game developer Ubi Soft Inc., and Yucaipa Companies, an entertainment investment firm headed by Michael Ovitz.
GameSpy sales come from several sources: Users can voluntarily pay $20 to register the company’s software in exchange for trinkets, sneak peeks at new software and “good karma.” Unregistered versions of the software display advertising, a second source of revenue. And GameSpy licenses its game-matching software to developers who want to include game match-up features in their releases.
Surfas is talking with several companies that design games for PCs and video game consoles such as Sega Enterprises Ltd.’s Dreamcast and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 2 about using GameSpy software in their titles. That could turn GameSpy into a service company for game developers that want to add online features to their releases, he said.
Online Hosting on Horizon
In addition to providing software, GameSpy wants to act as an online host, coordinating online match-ups and communication between players over the Internet. GameSpy’s new Arcade software features all of the functions of the older GameSpy 3D. It helps players track down others waiting to play online, automatically adjusts players’ software settings and launches the game.
But Arcade goes a step further by adding an instant messaging features that allow players to chat with one another before launching a game. And it links to GameSpy’s multiple gaming news and other Web sites.
One intriguing Arcade feature, Surfas said, is the software’s ability to manage new game downloads, making it easier to install and uninstall new titles,a feature Surfas hopes will become a way of selling and distributing games online.
Up to now, online gaming has been slow to take hold. Microsoft Corp.’s MSN Gaming Zone and Electronic Arts Inc.’s Ultima Online are among the leading sites, though others have failed. But as Internet usage grows, and with console makers adding online gaming to their machines, industry executives and analysts see online gaming growing in coming years.
The growth in online gaming could give smaller developers a way to sell and distribute their work, Surfas said, bypassing the $8 million it typically takes to develop a game and get it on store shelves.
“Small guys just can’t do that,” he says.
If anyone knows what it’s like being the small guy, it’s Surfas. He started the company in 1997 after the release of “Quake,” a shoot-’em-up game that was one of the first action titles to allow people to compete with each other and on teams over the Internet.
With GameSpy’s Arcade release, Surfas admits he’s taking direct aim at the big guy,Microsoft’s MSN Gaming Zone.
“Imitation is the finest form of flattery,” said Michael Mott, Gaming Zone’s director of business development.
Trump Card
Gaming Zone has a trump card in its affiliation with Microsoft’s popular Internet hub MSN, which directs millions of users to Gaming Zone and the superpower’s other sites.
Unlike Arcade, which requires users to go to the trouble of installing a new piece of software, Gaming Zone functions completely within a Web browser, automatically adding software components as needed.
Other smaller rivals include San Francisco-based Heat.net and Mountain View-based HearMe Inc.’s Mplayer.com. And there are probably other challenging technologies being developed somewhere by other inventive game players, Surfas said.
GameSpy hopes to counter those threats with its ties to Ziff-Davis, one of the largest computer magazine publishers. Ziff-Davis will distribute the GameSpy Arcade software bundled with its magazines and on its Web sites.
But Surfas says his company’s biggest advantage is employees’ love of the business, which makes it easier understand what users want.
“It’s not like selling mortgage insurance,” he says. “Everybody here loves gaming, loves the Internet and loves the culture. We hire cool people.” n
